User Manual

Landis+Gyr
Appendix D - About Firmware
Network Concentrator User and Installation Guide 98-1013 Rev AF 110
TIME from UtiliNet Network
The concentrator has a Real Time Clock (RTC). However, this clock is processor powered, and has
no battery backup. Therefore, time is not remembered by the concentrator during resets. The
concentrator waits for the time from the UtiliNet Radio. The RTC is programmed with the latest time
from the concentrator.
Application Troubleshooting without TIME
In the field, there may be instances where there is no WAN connectivity and, it may be required to
troubleshoot the concentrator. During boot-up, the following message is displayed on the console by
the concentrator.
Waiting for TIME from UtiliNet Radio...
Press Any Key to continue without time...
If any key is pressed during this wait period, the concentrator goes into the troubleshooting mode. In
this mode, the TIME is set a default hard coded time as shown below.
System Startup at Wed Oct 27 07:02:12 2004
A concentrator reboot/reset is required to get back from the tr oublesho ot ing
mode to the normal application mode .
Persistent Data Storage
Data Storage
There are four persistent logical data storage in the concentrator. They are:
• EEPROM - This stores the system configuration information. The information stored in this is
not affected by the concentrator resets. The configuration parameters stored in the EEPROM are
captured in Appendix B - EEPROM Configuration Parameters;
• Device Tracking Table (DTT) - This is a persistent table. This table is used to store the endpoint
address and their performance metrics.
• Endpoint Database (aka ODE database) - This is the main database in the concentrator. This is a
object database. Every endpoint is represented in the form of an object.
• Ramlog - This is an in-memory file, which contains the system log. This file is preserved over
the resets.
All these persistent elements are stored in the flash memory. The EEPROM is stored in the last 64K
segment of the Flash memory. Rest of the data elements is stored in the Data Storage area of Flash
memory.